Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and the Restoration of Christ's Church

Note:  This entry is under construction...

Joseph Smith, lower right Listens to a Preacher

In the 1820 Joseph Smith was a 14 year old farm boy living in Upstate New York, The United States of America.  There were many religious revivals going on in the area where he lived.  He saw his members of his own family join different churches.  Joseph noticed that the different Christian churches taught different things.  He wanted to join the true church of Christ.  Joseph is in the lower right side of the picture.
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Joseph studying the Bible

So Joseph studied the Holy Bible and came across the following Scripture:
            "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God..."   James 1:5

Joseph Smith's First Vision

Joseph decided to go do as James suggested, and he got up early in the morning, in the Spring of 1820.  When he prayed he saw a light descending from Heaven and he saw two personages above him. One of them said, "Joseph, this is my Beloved Son, hear ye him."  Then Jesus explained to  Joseph that none of the churches were completely true, Jesus said that they had a form of Godliness but denied the power of God. He also told Joseph that he could be an instrument in the hand of God to restore the true Gospel of Christ.   (Paraphrased....See Joseph Smith, History)

The Angel Moroni Appears to Joseph Smith

 A few years later Joseph Smith was visited by an angel.  He was told that there was a book, written on golden plates, hidden in a hill near Joseph’s home.  This book was written by the people of God who had lived in the Americas many years before.  The angel’s name was Moroni.  Moroni had been the prophet that buried or hid the gold plates in the hill 1,400 years earlier.

Joseph Smith translates the Golden Plates

A few years later Joseph was given the golden plates in order to translate them.  The golden plates contained the record of God's people in the Americas.  It also tells of Jesus visiting them.  The record had been written by prophets somewhere in the Americas.

Jesus Visits His People in the Americas

The Golden Plates were translated into what is now called The Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon tells the story of Christ's people in the New World or the Americas.  It even tells of Jesus visiting them after His resurrection.  The Book of Mormon tells of how God loves His people wherever they are found.

 

John The Baptist Confers the Aaronic Priesthood on Joseph Smith & Oliver Cowdery

While translating the plates Joseph and his scribe, Oliver Cowdery, had questions about baptism.  When they went into the woods to pray and angel appeared to them.  The angel was the resurrected John the Baptist…the same John who had baptized his cousin Jesus.  John the Baptist gave Joseph and Oliver the Aaronic Priesthood or power and authority of God to baptize people.  John then told Joseph and Oliver to baptize each other.  

A few weeks later three of Jesus’ twelve apostles appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and gave them the Melchizedek Priesthood.  This higher priesthood gave them the power to give the Gift of the Holy Ghost and to bless the sick.   These two priesthoods, Aaronic and Melchizedek, have been passed down by others, Elder to Elder by ordination. 

With the two priesthoods and under the direction of God, Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  This was Jesus Christ’s true church, restored to the Earth.  It had and still has the same priesthood, the same ordinances, and the same teachings as Christ’s church had back in Jerusalem and Europe around 1,700 years before.  That first church had fallen away from the truth. 

Joseph Smith Restores Christ's Church

With the two priesthoods and under the direction of God, Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  This was Jesus Christ’s true church, restored to the Earth.  It had and still has the same priesthood, the same ordinances, and the same teachings as Christ’s church had back in Jerusalem and Europe around 1,700 years before.  That first church had fallen away from the truth. 

Elijah Appears to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to restore the sealing power.

A few years later, after a temple was built, the resurrected prophet Elijah appeared and restored the sealing power to Christ’s church.

This was the same Elijah who went to heaven in a fiery chariot.  So now a husband and wife and their children can be sealed in a temple for time and all eternity.  So they can live together, with our Heavenly Parents and our big Brother Jesus Christ forever.  

Wicked men persecuted the members of Christ's church.  In fact, Joseph Smith was killed by thoese wicked men and then the mantle of the Prophet fell upon Brigham Young.

  Brigham Young led the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley where they could all worship God without persecution.  They had to travel by covered wagon.  Many people, including children, walked nearly the whole way.  My Great Great Grandfather was in the first company that arrived in Salt Lake Valley, in fact, according to his journal, Amasa Mason Lyman was planting potatoes the day before the main body of Saints arrived with Brigham Young.

Pioneers Crossing the Plains and through the Valleys of Wyoming etc. 

When they arrived in the mountains above the Salt Lake Valley Brigham Young was sick.  He sat up in his wagon and knew that this was the place to build the Kingdom of God on Earth.  He said,

     "This is the right place, drive on."

Some groups of Saints who were converted in Europe crossed the plains with nothing but a handcart that they pulled the whole way.  One of my ancestors, Lucy Ward Cole, was with one of the groups of handcart pioneers who got caught in a snowstorm and had to be rescued.  I'll post that story with drawings on a later post.  

Handcart Pioneers Crossing the Plains

There are now many Temples, all over the world, where families can be sealed for time and all eternity.  When a couple gets married or sealed in the Temple their children belong to them in the eternities...in Heaven.  When a family joins the church later after they have children in the home, the couple can be sealed to each other and they can have their children sealed to them forever.  

A Family after being Sealed in God's Temple

All men and women will be resurrected, that is, they will get their bodies back in a glorified and perfected form.  The righteous will be resurrected when Jesus returns to Earth to rein in Peace for

1,000 years. The unrighteous will have to wait for the 1,000 years to end for their resurrection to happen.   I was thinking about all the soldiers, form many nations, that have died in wars and I know many of them were good people.  This includes some nurses as well.  This is why I drew this picture showing the resurrection of soldiers and nurses.  I don't know if they will be resurrected in their uniforms though.   

When Christ Returns the Righteous will be Resurrected. 

We will live with our Loved Ones Forever in the Celestial Kingdom. 

The Plan of Salvation shows that we lived with our Heavenly Parents in our premortal life or preexistence.  We were Spirit children of our Heavenly Parents.  Then, so we could become more like our Heavenly Father and Mother we came to Earth to gain a body.  Here on Earth we are tested to prove if we will be worthy to return one day to live with our Heavenly Parents.  When we are baptized we are on the road to that goal.  Getting sealed to our eternal companion (husband or wife) is also very important.  When we die our physical body is buried in the ground and our spirit goes to the Spirit World where we live in Paradise or Spirit Prison.  Spirit prison is where we learn about the Gospel if we never heard about it on Earth.  Part of Spirit Prison is where people who were wicked on Earth and never repented are punished for their evil deeds they did while alive on Earth.  If we repent of our sins and are baptized we go automatically to Paradise.  People who accept the Gospel in the Spirit World can have someone on Earth baptized for them.  Those baptisms are done in God's Temples.  When Christ returns again to Earth the righteous spirits will get their bodies back...they will be resurrected.
Then for 1,000 years Jesus will rein on Earth in peace.  After that the wicked will finally be resurrected.  Then everyone will go to live in a Kingdom of Glory, based on their acceptance of the Gospel, and their behavior choices they made.    The Celestial Kingdom is for those who made and kept their covenants with Heavenly Father.  They will live with their husband or wife and their righteous decendants for eternity as they learn and progress.  We call this Eternal Progression.  These very righteous people will one day become gods themselves and have Spirit Children of their own.

The people in the Terrestrial Kingdom will also be happy where they ended up.  They were good people.  They just did not accept the full Gospel of Christ when they were given the chance.  They will still be happy with their situation.

The people in the Telestial Kingdom will be satisfied by and large with their condition...even though it is the lowest kingdom.    It has those who had to pay the price for their own sins because they did not repent.  It will still be a Kingdom of Glory.

People who were VERY wicked will go to Outer Darkness...no glory at all.

So where you end up for eternity depends on your acceptance of the Gospel of Christ.  You must develop faith, repent of our sins, and  do our best to keep God's commandments (including baptism and going to God's Temple)  to go to the highest Kingdom of Glory.  

The Plan of Salvation, also known as The Plan of Happiness